12/7/13 - Pearl Harbor Day, Sword, Atocha and Margarita Finds, and More Sand Planned for IR County & Sebastian

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Recovered from USS Oklahoma Sunk at Pearl Harbor.

Indian River County wants to dump more sand on their beaches.  WOW!  Isn't that surprising?
Actually it seems that dumping more sand on the beaches has become a continuous project.  Millions and millions of dollars of sand that makes its way into the ocean.

According to VeroNews.com,  As early as January, the county hopes to once again rebuild some of these (John’s Island to Treasure Shores Park) beaches, but the scope will be much smaller this time as money for only about 155,000 cubic yards of sand is budgeted.


Also in January, the Sebastian Inlet District will begin rebuilding a three-mile stretch of beach starting about a half a mile south of the inlet to about a half a mile south of Ambersand Beach.

If you ever wondered where this sand comes from, as I have, the article names some places including the Ranch Road Lake Mine, the mine the county utilized for its $15 million John’s Island to Treasure Shores project.

They also mention the David Mine and Henry Fischer’s 86th and 17th Street Mines, and the Hammond Mine.


The article says, The Sebastian Inlet project doesn’t have such stumbling blocks thanks to a sand trap deep in the belly of inlet, about 2,000 feet from the A1A bridge.

I always like to know where sand is coming from because the sand might have some goodies in it. as was the case for the sand dumped at Amber Sands, which held old coins that were released when there was erosion.

Here is the link for that article.

http://www.veronews.com/news/indian_river_county/government/heavy-winds-high-surf-fuel-more-beach-erosion-in-indian/article_37717d8a-5e34-11e3-8dcd-001a4bcf6878.html?mode=jqm

Yesterday I showed a Civil War sword found by a young boy.  The photo above is of a sword recovered from the USS Nebraska that sank in Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.  To most of us that date might be a little uncertain in our memories, but to those of the WWII generation, that is a date that is much like the assassination of JFK for the next generation who can tell you exactly where they were when they heard the news.  I was in a high school English class.

Here is a web site on military swords including US Navy regulation swords.

http://www.totalnavy.com/regulationsword.htm


And here is a web site about the salvage of the ships of Pearl Harbor including the Oklahoma.

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-pac/pearlhbr/ph-ok9.htm


 

The Mel Fisher organization reports that the crew of the Dare has recovered more silver coins from the trail of the Margarita, and the crew of the Magruder is finding lead split shot and musket balls and some other stuff on the trail of the Atocha.

Unfortunately the earlier predictions for an eleven foot surf in a week or so has already been reduced - nearly cut in half.  I thought that might happen.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

 

12/6/13 Report - Civil War Sword, Drones for Detectorists and Big Surf Coming

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Dug Civil War Sword

Two topics were on my mind this morning - Pearl Harbor Day (Sat.) and swords.   It is obvious why the first came to mind, but I don't know why swords came to mind.

I guess I was remembering a sword found on the beach just south of the walk-way at Turtle Trail quite a number of years ago.  Sometimes things just come to mind.  Anyhow, one thing leads to another.

It isn't always seasoned wisdom or tons of effort that results in remarkable finds.  Sometimes it is accident, good luck, or maybe even the unseen power behind the fickle finger of fate.  In any case, youth and novices have made more than their fare share of remarkable finds.

The Civil War sword shown above was found by a first grader in 2010.  It was originally reported in the now defunct Clarke Daily News.

Here is the link to the story.

http://www.clarkedailynews.com/local-1st-grader-makes-1st-class-civil-war-find/

Pretty neat how this boy got interested in finding Civil War items.   Nice story!


Did you ever want to know what the beach is doing a few hundred yards up ahead around the bend but not feel like making the walk?  With all of the talk about drones these days, wouldn't it be nice to send one up along the beach with a camera?   Or across the river?   It could save a lot of driving or walking.

Here is a site where you can buy your own personal drone, or better yet, hit the spouse up for one as a Christmas present.

http://www.personaldrones.net/store/


That goes right along with one of my other ideas of building a frame that has a number of detector coils mounted on it that you could pull behind a vehicle.   The signal would cause a spray can to spray a spot where the target was detected.   You could cover a lot of ground that way.  What do they say about idle minds?

On a more serious note, did you see the 11 foot seas predicted for next Friday.

Predicted Surf For the Near Future

From past experience, I'd say there is a slim chance that we'll actually get an eleven foot surf, but I guess there is some chance.  And if it does happen, that is enough that it would probably produce much improved detecting conditions.

We'll just have to wait and see if it really happens.


The poll only has about 60% of the number of respondents that I'd like to get for the newest blog poll.   A lot of people have turned their attention to Christmas shopping and the like.

I've already gleaned one piece of good information from the blog, but need to wait for more responses to make sure.   I appreciate your responses.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/5/13 Report - An Off-Center Post - Lockheed P-38 Buried In The Sand and A Well In A Living Room

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Lockheed P-38 Uncovered in 2010..

Sometimes you don't have to drive a long way to go detecting.  I've often talked about detecting your own yard, however here is something that takes it to another level.   How about having a 16th Century well in your living room?  That is what one guy found when he decided to fix his sagging floor.  Under the sofa was a 16th Century well, which he now has exposed and accessible from inside the house.  How convenient!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2195207/Couple-discover-33ft-deep-medieval-WELL-beneath-living-room-spotting-bump-floor.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Did you see the picture where the well actually comes out in the living room?



I ran across the above photo and just thought it was really neat.  The plane was apparently buried in the sand since 1942 or shortly thereafter.  It does illustrate how things, even big things, can lie buried in shallow water for a long time and then suddenly appear.

Here is the link to that story.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1274292/Buried-Welsh-beach-60-years-World-War-II-fighter-emerged-seas.html



Have trouble remembering your passwords?  Take this pill.   It causes your brain to emit a EKG signal that can be detected by a reading device.

http://techland.time.com/2013/11/14/the-25-best-inventions-of-the-year-2013/slide/the-edible-password-pill/

Of course, then the crooks will get readers too.

Now that is far out.

There were experiments where small microscopic organisms were trained on a task and then ground up and fed to others of the same kind of organism and the training was transferred.  I haven't read about anything like that for decades, but this password pill reminded me of it.


I'm off-kilter today it seems.  I wasn't even going to do a post today, but did.  Just something a little different.   It seems like a big let down after we had a nice period of good hunting.

I had some other things that I hoped to do but didn't get around to yet.   For one thing I came across old home movies (8 mm.) showing JFK in convertible in a motorcade (not Dallas). Those are home movies which the world most certainly has never seen.  Someday I might get that posted.  I know it isn't metal detecting, but it sure is history.


Thanks in part to the revisions to the blog poll, it sees that some very good information is coming out of it.   I hope you'll participate.


The only thing in the beach predictions right now that seems possibly promising is about a week away when a 4 - 6 foot surf is predicted.  Until then nothing more than about three or four feet.  And of course the predicted 4 to 6 foot surf might not even happen.  On the other hand, being optimistic, it might be even bigger.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/4/13 Report - 1919 50 Centimes Found, History of the Indian River Ridge Area & More

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.


Things have cooled down on the Treasure Coast beaches.  Last month was a pretty good month.  December hasn't started out as well.  

1919 50 Centimes

Other Side of Same Coin

Here is one less common coin find that took a back seat while the cobs were showing up.  It is a 1919 French coin - 50 centimes.

It is in unusually good shape for an older dug coin and cleaned up well.

Nothing earth shattering, but it is more interesting than most of the clad and has about $1.50 in silver content.


Here is a link to a nice history of the Indian River Ridge area going back to the days of the Armed Occupation Act written by Rick Langdon.  Well worth reading if you haven't already done so.

http://rickinbham.tripod.com/TownOfSIRD/SIRD_History_2.html



SedwickCoins has an online store if you are interested in buying treasure items as Chrsitmas gifts or just like to browse.  Below is the link.

http://www.sedwickcoins.com/price_list.htm



Hundreds of artifacts including a holed Spanish coin were discovered at an old plantation site in Savannah.

http://www.tribtown.com/view/story/a59e975219104c9489181dfd5022b033/GA--Slave-Relics-Unearthed



While I'm not expecting good hunting on Treasure Coast beaches for quite a while, at least the low tides are starting to get a little lower.  The low tides had not been going down much for many weeks now. 

Nothing very promising right now.


I hope you'll participate in the blog poll so we'll have a better idea of exactly what was found in November.   The poll is working well now.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/3/13 Report - Blog Poll Fixed, EO, Coin Hole, Silver and Gold Prices Drop, & Poor Conditions

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.\

One of Two Encrusted Object Found by William M.
Photo by William.

The thing I'm most happy about this morning related to the blog is that the revised poll seems to be working well now.

If you responded to the poll before I shut it down and changed it, you'll need to respond to the new poll.  It seems to be getting at some good information for all of us.

Yesterday I gave my beach rating and a few comments including the probability of encrusted objects being found during the current beach conditions.  William M. went out and upon returning wrote the following.

Good morning.. I just wanted to confirm your rating. I detected through low tide yesterday in the rain..very few targets.. I hit one hole that was about a six by six foot area that I found all but one of these coins...they were on top of a shell layer about six inches deep. I found two encrusted iron objects low on the beach along with a few sinkers.

Thanks for the report William.  I'm always testing my thoughts and comments to see if I need to revise my thinking or if I can learn something.  I appreciate receiving the observations and reports of others.  They help a lot.

Coins Found by William M. in a Tight Hole
Photo by William.

William also confirmed the covered shell layer. 

I've talked about coin holes and lines before.

Also, it is not uncommon for objects such as coins to be found on top of a layer of shells under a few inches of sand.

Back a week or so ago, there were a lot of old thin pieces of aluminum mixed in with the shells.

When you hit a coin line or coin hole, detect very slowly.  Going back over the same spot a few times can produce smaller or deeper objects as the targets that produce louder signals are removed.

Gold has been taking a beating this year, going from above $1700 to down around $1200, or around $500 an ounce.

Chart from http://www.monex.com/prods/gold_chart.html

It is surprising how much you can gain or lose by holding or selling gold.

Silver is down too - now below $20 per ounce.

I'm expecting poor beach detecting conditions along the Treasure Coast for the next week.  Not only will the surf be no higher than around five feet, but the wind will be coming out of the South a lot.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/2/13 Report - December Treasure Coast Beach Metal Detecting Conditions & Reworked Poll

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Treasure Coast Beach Near Low Tide Yesterday

Updated 2:00 PM.

I had to remove and fix the blog poll which was not working properly.  The poll was not accepting multiple responses as was intended.  Now it is.

I also changed some of the wording and responses.  I think the poll was improved by the changes.  We'll see.

It is always nice to have real data about what is being found.

I made some changes that I already had in mind.   It was evident to me that some people were not interpreting a couple of the responses the way I intended.  LB also made some suggestions.  I hope the poll is working properly now and will give us better data than the original version.

Sorry for any inconvenience, and thanks for your participation.

Still Near Low Tide.

Notice the shells on top of the cut.

That was from a while back when the water and shells were washing up over the cut.  The water hasn't been that high for a while.

There were some scattered shells down by the water line too, but most of the shell piles were now covered again.

Sand Bar at Front of Beach Near Low Tide.

Notice the flat sand in front of the beach.  The sand bar is now connected to the front of the beach.

Many of the shells which you could see a few days ago are now covered by sand again.

I would expect to be able to find some encrusted objects on the low flat beach.

Cobs would be hard to find now.  My T. C. beach conditions rating is definitely a 1 (poor) now.

We had a good November this year.  December is not starting out so well.

Now the predictions have nothing but a 3 foot or less surf for about a week, so hunting will remain poor.

I'll try to get the poll fixed and started again with some slight modifications.

I know these polls aren't perfect.  My doctoral dissertation involved constructing a poll (not on metal detecting) so I know a little about the problems with polls.  No poll is perfect.  There is always a matter of analysis and interpretation as well as problems with data collection, yet they do provide information.  And the ones I've been doing on metal detecting provide information that is not available anywhere else.  I'm glad to have it and exercise extreme caution when making interpretations.

As you recently saw, I also combine the results of multiple polls.

I only have X number of characters to phrase the poll, so that is limiting.  Part of the way I deal with that is to do additional polls to provide additional detail, as well as comparing the results of multiple polls.

Anyhow, as I said, I'll rework the last poll and fix the technical difficulty and start it over again.

That is it for now.  I might have more later.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/1/13 Report - Submersible Robot, Comparing and Contrasting Sandy and This November & Warners Safe Bottles

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Turtle-Like Shipwreck Robot
Photo from article linked below.

The recently concluded blog poll was very informative.  It gave us a very good idea of how many people found cobs or treasure coins and allowed comparison with other periods when cobs or treasure coins were found.

I just added a new poll to the blog to find out what types of things were found.  Thanks for your participation, which will significantly add to the overall body of knowledge of beach detecting.

I've thought a little more about the comparisons between Sandy and Nov. 2013.   They were very similar in some ways and very different in others.

One striking similarity was that exactly the same number of people reported finding cobs or treasure coins for both Sandy and this November - 15 for each.  The number of respondents for the Sandy poll was only 90, while the sample size for November was 100.   That could make a little difference, but still about the same number of people reportedly found cobs or treasure coins.  (I had a three beach conditions rating on both as the highest predominant rating.)

The water during Sandy came up very high on the beach - back up over most of the flat beach and near or to the foot of the dunes.  This November, in contrast, the water never got near that far back.

During Sandy the erosion was farther back on the beach but the producing cuts were not as big.  I believe the cobs found during Sandy came from a greater number of beaches.

The number of cobs found during Sandy was pretty high considering the relative lack of erosion.

This November I believe fewer beaches produced, but those that did produce, produced greater concentrations.  And the cobs were more closely associated with cuts than during Sandy.

I've learned some things from that.   The beaches don't always show outstanding cuts when they are producing.  High water can do the job even when the beaches are not nicely cut.

It appears to me that high water conditions without big cutting produces cobs that are more spread over a larger area than the clusters that are produced near cuts when the cuts are bigger and closer to the front of the beach.  I'll be sure to observe and test those theories in the future.



Here is an article about a nice little submersible robot for studying shipwrecks.  (See photo above.)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2515099/Meet-U-CAT-robotic-turtle-help-archaeologists-investigate-shipwrecks.html



If you dig bottles, here is one more little tip that will help determine how old your bottle is.  The tip comes from Kovels Komments.

A very rare Warner's Safe Diabetes Cure bottle from Pressburg (Bratislava, Slovakia) has sold on eBay for $8,735. It was made for only a few years, 1888 to 1890. (See Bottles and Extras magazine, November-December 2013). Warner's Safe Cure medicine bottles are popular with collectors, and there are dozens of variations. I have a few Warner's bottles and a large, very odd poster that shows a Warner's Safe Kidney and Liver Cure box and a mermaid on a buoy near a sinking ship. The words on the poster say, "We guarantee safety by taking the right channel." A common Warner's Safe Cure bottle sells for as little as $35 to $200. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 required truth in labeling, and the word "cure" on bottles was replaced by "remedy." So "cure" bottles are over 100 years old.


I hope your Thanksgiving went well.  Only one more month to go this year.  Can you believe it?   It seems like just a few days ago I had to get used to writing 2013.


The wind has been blowing pretty good.  I'll have to get out to the beach soon to see what if anything is going on.


Today on the Treasure Coast we're supposed to have something like a 3 - 5 foot surf.  Yesterday it was a touch higher.  The surf is supposed to decrease steadily until next weekend until it is down around two feet.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net